Plans unveiled for museum and memorial site at former WWII camp where ‘untold numbers perished’
Seeking to balance the natural beauty of the area with the need to properly commemorate its wartime tragedy, plans have finally been revealed detailing how the KL Plaszow museum and memorial site will be developed.
Slated for completion in 2025, the project has already been lauded in some quarters as being both pioneering and unique for the manner in which it will handle environmental issues relating to the plot.
Speaking to TFN, the museum’s Jacek Stawiski said: “For decades the terrain has stood empty and become naturally very rich. It’s quite experimental, but we are seeking not just to prepare a museum and commemoration centre but to also preserve the natural qualities of the space – we want it to be an open space for reflection.”
Speaking to TFN, the museum’s Jacek Stawiski said: “For decades the terrain has stood empty and become naturally very rich. It’s quite experimental, but we are seeking not just to prepare a museum and commemoration centre but to also preserve the natural qualities of the space – we want it to be an open space for reflection.”
Covering 37 hectares, the area of the former concentration camp has for several years been entered into the Register of Monuments with the extensive plot covering three sites of mass execution and two Jewish cemeteries that were effectively razed during the occupation.
The plans include a main museum building that will take advantage of the natural terrain and be embedded into an escarpment with only the front elevation visible.
Yet having been allowed to silently slip from the public conscience for so long, KL Plaszow is finally set to get the attention it merits with the development of a museum.
“This is a hugely important moment for the city of Kraków,” says Stawiski. “Most of the Jews living in the Kraków Ghetto at the time of its liquidation were sent here, and it also has huge meaning for Poles, as well.
The design will see the exhibition divided into nine zones that will retell the story of KL Plaszow.
“For instance, in the wake of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the Germans rounded-up thousands of Polish males and sent them here to prevent a similar insurgency in Kraków.”
According to Stawiski, the new museum will not just commemorate those that perished, but will also dedicate itself to publicising the testimonies of the many that survived.
The so-called Gray House, the basement of which was home to a detention centre that became feared across the city, will also be renovated and transformed to feature educational rooms, library and museum.
“In that respect,” he says, “KL Plaszow takes on a real international meaning. After the war, the survivors found themselves scattering around the world: Israel, the United State, Great Britain, Australia, etc.
“This museum is very much for them and their children, and when you consider that, you understand that this museum will reach way beyond just Kraków itself.”
First established towards the end of 1942, KL Plaszow housed approximately 25,000 people during the peak of its operations.
The plans, which were revealed at a press conference yesterday, include a main museum building that will take advantage of the natural terrain and be embedded into an escarpment with only the front elevation visible.
The arrangement of the permanent exhibition, meanwhile, will be left to the Koza Nostra studio. Winning a competitive process that was decided in December, their design will see the exhibition divided into nine zones that will retell the story of KL Plaszow.
Although it lacked gas chambers, the camp earned a reputation for its brutal conditions and around five-to-eight thousand people are known to have died there.
In the justification, their heavy use of limestone – a reference to the material that slave labourers principally worked with – was praised for creating “a narrative link relating to the history of KL Plaszow”.
The so-called Gray House will also be renovated and transformed to feature educational rooms, library and museum. Once an administrative building associated with the Jewish cemetery, during the KL Plaszow era it housed the offices of the camp’s management.
The camp’s commandant, Amon Göth was known for his callous villainy and disregard for human life.
The basement, however, was home to a detention centre that became feared across the city. “In this exhibition, the voice will be given primarily to witnesses,” say the museum. “Through their statements about their experiences, visitors will learn a more emotional and personal side to KL Plaszow.”
First established towards the end of 1942, KL Plaszow housed approximately 25,000 people during the peak of its operations.
Although it lacked gas chambers, the camp earned a reputation for its brutal conditions and around five-to-eight thousand people are known to have died there. Many of those were shot with many of the mass shootings carried out on a hill that became known as Hujowa Górka.
Immortalised in the book Schindler’s Ark and, subsequently, the film Schindler’s List, many would argue that Göth has come to be the face of KL Plaszow.
As the Red Army neared Kraków, locals reported seeing seventeen truckloads of human ash being exhumed and transported away in a vain bid to hide traces of war crimes.
Perhaps even more notorious, though, was the camp’s commandant, Amon Göth.
Memorable for his callous villainy and disregard for human life, this heavy-drinking womaniser was as partial to terrorising inmates with his Great Danes as he was to taking pot shots at them whilst wearing a Tyrolean hunting cap.
Now, with the construction of the museum, the narrative is set to be shifted back towards the prisoners and victims.
Immortalised in the book Schindler’s Ark and, subsequently, the film Schindler’s List, many would argue that Göth has come to be the face of KL Plaszow.
Now, with the construction of the museum, the narrative is set to be shifted back towards the prisoners and victims.
“It’s a privilege to work on a project like this,” concludes Stawiski. “When you look at the different elements, the project is about history, memory, Jews, Poles, and, even, the natural landscape of our country.”
